I saw OnePlus's foldable smartphone. Samsung has reasons to worry

The first foldable smartphone from OnePlus - Open - has just seen the light of day and immediately hits our market. How does its price compare to the competition? It depends.

OnePlus Open is the twin brother of the OPPO Find N3 model, which is concurrently debuting in China. This is good news for customers who complained about the unavailability of foldable OPPO smartphones in our part of the world.

The smartphone will be available from us in only one memory configuration (16/512 GB) and only one color (green). The price has been set at $1,699.99.

As part of the premier offer, OnePlus Buds Pro 2 wireless headphones worth approximately $184 will be added to the phone.

How does this price compare to the competition? The situation is complicated because the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 is not available in a comparable memory version. The 12/512 GB configuration is more expensive than the OnePlus Open, and also has less RAM. However, Samsung also offers a cheaper 12/256 GB variant.

In other words - OnePlus Open is not the cheapest new generation foldable smartphone, but the ratio of specifications to the price is relatively favorable. Especially since the manufacturer also adds valuable headphones at the start.

OnePlus Open versus Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5. My first impressions are very positive

I had the opportunity to spend an hour with the foldable smartphone from OnePlus before its premiere. It promises to be really interesting.

First and foremost, I like its proportions. The folded OnePlus Open has a shape similar to a standard smartphone and is clearly wider than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5.

I consider this to be a plus, because for me, the foldable Samsung is a bit too narrow, which makes using the on-screen keyboard challenging, for instance. Its new competitor allows for much more comfortable typing.

The OnePlus Open is also 1.7 thinner, which is a noticeable difference, but not staggering. The same goes for the weight, which is about 0.28 ounces lower.

As OnePlus Open is wider than Samsung, it has a horizontal orientation when unfolded, not vertical. The effect? In its default orientation, it displays less content in portrait mode but is better suited for viewing panoramic films.

Of course, the software has been tailored for a large and foldable screen. The smartphone allows for comfortable use of two or three applications at the same time.

The manufacturer prides itself on the OnePlus Open having the most advanced camera among foldable smartphones available in Poland, mainly due to the presence of a periscope telephoto lens. Although its optical zoom is just - like in Samsung - only 3x, it makes up for this with a larger, higher resolution matrix, which nonetheless results in a larger zoom range.

Below is a small comparison of photos taken with 0.6x, 1x, 3x, 10x, and 30x zoom.

And indeed, OnePlus Open wins at higher zoom levels. Although I personally prefer the color scheme and contrast of the pictures taken by Samsung.

The design of the phone allows all the cameras to be used for taking selfies.

Finally, a quick look at the full specification of OnePlus Open:

• Foldable internal AMOLED LTPO screen of 7.82 inches with resolution of 2440 x 2268 (410 ppi) and variable refresh rate of 1-120 Hz;
• External AMOLED LTPO screen of 6.31 inches with resolution of 2484 x 1166 (432 ppi) and variable refresh rate of 10-120 Hz;
• Snapdragon 8 Gen 2;
• 16 GB of RAM (LPDDR5X);
• 512 GB of data storage (USF 4.0);
• Main 48 Mpix camera (1/1.43 inch Pixel Stacked) with optical image stabilization and f/1.7 aperture;
• 48 Mpix camera (1/2 inch) with ultra-wide lens f/2.2 and macro mode;
• 64 Mpix camera (1/2 inch) with 3x periscopic telephoto lens, optical image stabilization and f/2.6 aperture;
• Front 20 Mpix camera (hole in the internal screen);
• Front 32

OnePlus Open has announced 4 major Android updates and 5-year security support.